Palace Museum to build new branch in northern Beijing: curator

The Palace Museum will build a new museum in the north of Beijing so that more cultural relics can be displayed to the public, said curator Shan Jixiang over the weekend.

Currently, the Palace Museum puts on 70 to 80 exhibitions each year, but the items displayed account for merely 0.5 percent of the collection, far less than the general levels of 10 to 20 percent for major museums in the world, Shan said at the International Smart Tourism Conference 2016, which kicked off in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Shan said the new museum will be 25 kilometers from the current one and situated in a scenic spot, with a lake to its south and a river to its north. It will also be close to places of interest, including the Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace), to the south and the Great Wall and Ming Tombs to the north, it was added.

The first phase of the four-year project will occupy an area of 125,000 square meters, which is set to enable exhibitions as well as restoration of more cultural relics upon completion.

The new museum will be environmentally friendly and meet the requirements of conservation and display of cultural relics as well as satisfy the needs of visitors, Shan said.

In a bid to allow visitors to have a better understanding of the relics, a digital Palace Museum has been built. In addition, the museum also plans to further expand the area open to the public, expanding from the current level of 76 percent of its total area to 80 percent by 2020 and 85 percent by 2025.